Hope for animal cruelty case to send warning

The RSPCA is hoping the penalties imposed in a recent animal cruelty case will serve as a warning to livestock owners across Western Australia.

Sawyers Valley man Phillip Carter received a suspended jail term and was fined more than $160,000 yesterday, after pleading guilty in the Midland Magistrates Court to animal mistreatment.

He was also permanently prohibited from owning livestock.

RSPCA spokesman Tim Mayne says the society found about 70 sickly sheep and cattle on Carter's various properties and several of them had to be put down.

"The magistrate during his sentencing remarks was quite critical of Mr Carter and he said there was no question that these animals underwent a significant degree of suffering for an extended period of time," he said.

"He kept repeating that he regarded these matters as very serious and at the upper end of the offending scale.

"Look, the message here is, and the magistrate said it as well during his sentencing remarks to Mr Carter, was that he was quite incapable, he had little or no knowledge of animal husbandry, he cannot let animals suffer in this way again.

"The magistrate was quite appalled by the condition of the animals in the photographs that he saw."